Two Different Girls

On page four of the February issue of National Right to Life News you'll find a genuinely inspirational story. "Not an 'Error' But Our Child" will not only make your day, it will also renew your confidence in the power of the human spirit.

It would rank up there with the biggest understatements of the past decade to say that little Sarah Hanson has had an incredibly difficult first nine years. But it would also be no less a huge understatement to say merely that her parents have met the difficult challenges posed by Sarah's many medical difficulties with grace, dignity, and a steadfastness that puts me to shame.

Sixteen pages later you will find a polar opposite account, a story of alleged neglect and cruelty and medical incompetence so complete it will reduce you to tears. Happily, however, let me tell you the good news first: little Haleigh Poutre is not being starved to death. Let me provide you with the lead from Liz Townsend's story.

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Just one day after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court gave government officials the right to take an abused 11-year-old girl off life support, Haleigh Poutre began to show signs of consciousness. The Department of Social Services (DSS), which had asked the court to be allowed to stop feeding Haleigh, announced that the January 17 court order has been stayed while Haleigh continues to improve, according to the Boston Herald.

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Haleigh had been successfully weaned off her ventilator, and she now breathes on her own. On January 26, she was transferred to Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston, which is the largest rehabilitation facility for children in New England.

Based on an article in this morning's Boston Globe, Haleigh is in a hospital that is a "haven" for children with severe disabilities.

That's the end of the good news.

Everything else is a chronology that boggles the mind. Let's pick up with Liz's story.

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Haleigh suffered a severe head injury September 11, allegedly at the hands of her adoptive mother and stepfather. She was brought to the hospital with severe injuries: broken teeth, swollen face, burns on her chest, sunken abdomen, cuts and sores, and a temperature of 81 degrees, according to the New York Times. The most brutal injury was to her brain stem, which was partly sheared.

"It was the sort of injury, [doctors] testified, that they see after a high-speed car accident, where the brain inside the skull is subjected to tremendous acceleration and deceleration forces," prosecutor Laurel H. Brandt said at a court hearing, according to the Washington Post.

Haleigh's doctors at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield said she was in a "permanent vegetative state" and should be removed from life support, according to the Boston Globe. The DSS asked the court to grant the department custody of Haleigh and allow it to withdraw both her ventilator and feeding tube.

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How long had DDS waited? Six days! That's all we need to know about these players. Liz then writes about Haleigh's background.

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Haleigh was removed from her birth mother's custody at four years old because of "substantiated allegations of abuse" by her mother's boyfriend, the Times reported. She was adopted in 2001 by her birth mother's sister, Holli Strickland, who later married Jason Strickland. Haleigh was never officially adopted by Jason Strickland.

Both Holli and Jason Strickland were charged with assault and battery after Haleigh was brought to the hospital. However, Holli Strickland was found dead September 22 with her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide, the Post reported. With her death, Haleigh had no legal guardian. The court needed to determine who had the legal right to make decisions on her treatment.

Jason Strickland asked the courts to be granted custody, saying that he did not want to remove her life support. His request was denied January 17 by the Supreme Judicial Court, which cited the assault charges pending against him and the conflict of interest involved, since if Haleigh died he could be charged with murder.

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DSS Commissioner Harry Spence visited Haleigh for the first time January 24, one week after his department received authorization to remove her feeding tube. He told the Boston Globe that doctors, who previously diagnosed Haleigh as "virtually brain dead," said, in effect, "Oops, we're seeing something."

During his visit, Haleigh had toys on her lap, the Globe reported. A social worker asked her, "Give him the yellow duck," and Haleigh picked up the duck. The social worker then said, "Where's Curious George?" and Haleigh picked up the stuffed monkey.

"It's an astounding case," said Spence, according to the Globe. "It's her incredible will to live."

Bioethicist Wesley Smith put Haleigh's near-starvation in perspective. He wrote,

"Lest anyone think that Haleigh's apparent consciousness protects her from suffering the fate of Terri Schiavo, who was ordered dehydrated by a Florida court based, in part, on a finding that she was unconscious, think again. In most states, exhibiting consciousness is not a defense against dehydration for profoundly impaired patients. Indeed, cognitively disabled people who are conscious are commonly dehydrated throughout the country. So long as no family member objects, the practice is deemed medically routine.

"How can this be?" he asked. "The simple answer is that tube-supplied food and water -- often called 'artificial nutrition and hydration' (ANH) -- has been defined in law and in medical ethics as an ordinary medical treatment. This means that it can be refused or withdrawn just like, say, antibiotics, kidney dialysis, chemotherapy, surgery, blood pressure medicine, or any other form of medical care. Indeed, removing ANH has come to be seen widely in medicine and bioethics as an 'ethical' way to end the lives of cognitively disabled 'biologically tenacious' patients (as one prominent bioethicist once described disabled people like Terri Schiavo and Haleigh Poutre), without resorting to active euthanasia."

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Not Dead Yet, a major Disability Rights organization, was even angrier. It asked how the hospital could "support the incorrect diagnosis just eight days after Poutre's admission." It then quoted brain trauma specialist Dr. Douglas Katz of Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital, who recently said, "I wouldn't give up before a year."

Not Dead Yet then asked a question that dovetails perfectly with Smith's insights. "Is giving up after eight days standard operating procedure" at the center? "Has this hospital and others in the state allowed other children with brain injuries to die under such rushed circumstances?"

Two children, two entirely different fates. At least we can be grateful that both young girls are now receiving the kind of loving attention they both deserved all along.

If you have any comments, please write me at dandrusko@nrlc.org